Lean In
In this episode of the Wealth Witches Podcast, host Katelyn Magnuson explores the transformative power of “leaning into discomfort” to drive personal and professional growth. She shares her own experiences, such as the journey of rebranding the podcast and embracing her true identity, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between discomfort that leads to growth and discomfort that indicates a misalignment with one’s values.
Katelyn discusses practical strategies for managing discomfort, including aligning her work with her energy levels and outsourcing tasks that drain her energy, like email management. By hiring an executive assistant, she has been able to enhance both her efficiency and client experience.
The episode also delves into the value of asking for constructive feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable, as a tool for improving services and fostering stronger client relationships. Katelyn encourages listeners to embrace their authentic selves and make choices aligned with their own values, rather than following the crowd. This episode is a motivational guide for anyone ready to push past their comfort zones and make meaningful, aligned changes in their life.
Key Takeaways
- Leaning into discomfort is essential for growth and self-discovery.
- Embrace your authentic self to create a more fulfilling life and business.
- Outsource energy-draining tasks to improve efficiency and reduce overwhelm.
- Seek and value constructive feedback for continuous improvement.
- Ensure your actions align with your personal values and goals.
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Music credit: Neon Fairies by Wolves
Transcript
Hello, and welcome magical creatures to the Wealth Witches podcast.
Speaker:This is a place where we brew financial empowerment and mix in a little sprinkle
Speaker:of magic. I'm Katelyn Magnuson, your guide on this enchanted
Speaker:journey to financial enlightenment. Here, we honor all identities and
Speaker:invoke our inner witches to create holistic wealth and prosperity. So
Speaker:grab your crystals, open your minds, and let's get ready to conjure some
Speaker:financial clarity clarity.
Speaker:To steal or borrow, we'll say, some
Speaker:famous words from Sheryl Sandberg. We are gonna be talking about leaning
Speaker:in, but we're talking about leaning into discomfort on this episode
Speaker:in business, in life, and, also, I think
Speaker:trying briefly about sort of understanding
Speaker:discomfort and what I mean by it because
Speaker:there's discomfort meaning anxiety, nervousness,
Speaker:something that maybe you aren't good at, and there's discomfort
Speaker:meaning a lack of safety or,
Speaker:you know, something that is irresponsible
Speaker:or risky. And,
Speaker:again, definition of risky can kind of vary. So
Speaker:I want to talk about a couple of real life examples that I have, and
Speaker:one of them is this podcast. So as I had chatted about
Speaker:in episode 37 when we were kicking off this new season, this
Speaker:new version of the podcast as Wealth Witches,
Speaker:For me, a time when I know that I need
Speaker:to lean into something, into something that's uncomfortable, but
Speaker:uncomfortable exciting is when it's something that I can't stop
Speaker:thinking about. And I'm thinking about it, and I'm excited. I I call
Speaker:it, like, nerve cited. Right? Because you're nervous, you're excited, you're anxious.
Speaker:For me, especially in the industry that I'm in, it's like, how am I gonna
Speaker:be perceived? Like, am I still gonna be taken seriously in the industry?
Speaker:You know, what about my clients that are, like, not okay with
Speaker:this? What does this mean? What does it look like for the team if the
Speaker:team feels like it's weird? And, frankly, it
Speaker:doesn't matter. A lot of it doesn't matter. I'm
Speaker:not out here to hurt anyone. I'm not out here to do anything
Speaker:except show up and provide value and
Speaker:relatable stories and
Speaker:be my truest realest self online. And that is what I kept coming back
Speaker:to. I kept having this push or this nudge
Speaker:that I was feeling things were
Speaker:boring. Things were
Speaker:no. Boring is not necessarily the right word. Monotonous.
Speaker:Things were monotonous. Things felt routine. And I
Speaker:kept just getting these little nudges or, you know,
Speaker:embracing things in my personal life, like having a solstice party,
Speaker:celebrating the full and new moons, getting to understand, like, my
Speaker:menstrual cycle and what that meant for my energy levels and how to
Speaker:work with my schedule, because I kept noticing it started a
Speaker:few years ago. It's like, you know, I'm really creative 1 week out of the
Speaker:month. Like, what is this? And then figuring out, like,
Speaker:oh, that's because it's I still don't even know what the name of the phase
Speaker:is. I just know that I have about a week out of the month where
Speaker:I am so much more creative. All of the ideas flow. And without fail, it
Speaker:seemed to happen that I would have all of my commitments,
Speaker:time commitments, social commitments, client calls that week. And
Speaker:so I wanted to be doing these creative things, and I didn't have the time
Speaker:or the energy by the time I was through my commitments
Speaker:to do the creative things. And so instead, now I can figure out
Speaker:and take time for, hey. These are I I have a creative
Speaker:week. I have a dead energy week, and then I have 2,
Speaker:I think, term or, like, all normal weeks, like,
Speaker:medium weeks. Right? And so for me,
Speaker:becoming aware of that, let me understand that, like, when
Speaker:I get the these creative nudges on the create like, I can go
Speaker:take action on them. And so for me, one of the most uncomfortable things
Speaker:I've done in the last year is rebrand this podcast,
Speaker:get a tattoo that has crystals in it and
Speaker:mushrooms and, you know, it was deemed like my witchy corner on the
Speaker:inside of my forearm. Like, it it's again, it's it's a full sleeve. We
Speaker:really went bigger, went home on that one, and I couldn't love it more. But
Speaker:for me, wealth which is and this concept, like, kept popping
Speaker:up of, like, marrying the holistic
Speaker:side of things because I'm here to take actionable tangible steps.
Speaker:Like, what tax strategy do we have? Like, what tax savings are
Speaker:there? And at the same time, like, we're manifesting.
Speaker:We're practicing gratitude. We're, like, celebrating the seasonal change.
Speaker:We're embracing our energy levels. And that felt so much
Speaker:more genuine to me than just showing up on the
Speaker:tactical, like, strategic left brain side of business and life
Speaker:because that's not who I am. I am that and
Speaker:magic and sparkles and glitter and
Speaker:astrology. And so for me,
Speaker:that was probably one of the hardest ones, but I kept I kept having that
Speaker:nudge. Now there are a few other areas that I have leaned
Speaker:in to the discomfort, and I encourage you to lean into the
Speaker:discomfort as well. And there's a couple of different ways that I've gone about it
Speaker:for these. The one of them is that I will get
Speaker:really, really overwhelmed by emails.
Speaker:Not personally, but professionally. We have 2 joint email inbox
Speaker:3 joint email inboxes or shared email inboxes, and then I have my own
Speaker:private email. And there can
Speaker:be times where I can feel so
Speaker:overwhelmed or maybe I I had all the best intentions. Right? But things were
Speaker:really busy. And a week goes by, and I was going
Speaker:to respond to that email. And now it's been a week, and now it's just
Speaker:awkward. And I keep pushing it off because it's just, like, uncomfortable
Speaker:thing that's gonna take me probably take me 10 or 15 minutes to do. Right?
Speaker:But if I wasn't in a quiet place, if I wasn't in a spot where
Speaker:I could give it the attention that it needed, because that's when it tends to
Speaker:happen, or if it required additional thought, additional capacity
Speaker:from me, then I'd put it off for a quiet time or a less stressful
Speaker:time when I could actually, like, really give it what it needed. And
Speaker:without fail, that ends up becoming 2 weeks, And
Speaker:then the person follows up, and then I feel really awkward. And it's just
Speaker:this whole weird shame spiral. And I've talked
Speaker:to clients. I've talked to some of my work besties.
Speaker:Except clients do the same thing to me. You know, where I send an email
Speaker:and they mean to reply and they don't reply, and then it gets really awkward.
Speaker:And I've literally called it out to them that, like, hey.
Speaker:No harm to a fell. I understand what's going on. I can see you opening
Speaker:my emails. Can we just connect on this? Like, really, truly,
Speaker:I know how you're feeling. I get the exact same way. But it is. It's
Speaker:this gross shame imposter spiral that happens.
Speaker:And so understanding that I can only force myself so
Speaker:much to reply to them. So I keep inbox 0. So anything in my inbox
Speaker:are things that need to be replied to or actively being worked on.
Speaker:And seeing that every day, seeing the email sitting at the
Speaker:bottom that I need to reply to that it's gonna take more capacity than I
Speaker:have right now, or maybe I have to get information from someone else. And
Speaker:it's just that extra effort. So I
Speaker:short circuited the whole process and hired
Speaker:an executive assistant to help with emails.
Speaker:And this is a shameless she didn't even know I'm talking about this.
Speaker:But Success Beyond is the agency that I
Speaker:hired, and Jen Bayes is one of my really, really
Speaker:great friends. She runs it. I was talking to her because I
Speaker:have a chat with her and Shannon, who does our email marketing for the freelance
Speaker:CFO. And we're, you know, talking about this and just how frustrating it is. And
Speaker:Jen's like, you know, I I literally have a team that can help with that.
Speaker:And I was like, yeah. But it's taxes and, like, accounting and says, there's a
Speaker:lot of technical knowledge. And she's like, just just think about
Speaker:it. And I thought about it because I didn't
Speaker:want to train like, the the thought of taking the time to train someone
Speaker:else felt can't think of the right word for
Speaker:it, but it felt like it wasn't going to fix the problem
Speaker:because they're not me. And that's so like, how many times do we
Speaker:fall into that line of thinking? Right? They're not me. They're not me. They're not
Speaker:gonna do it the way that I do it. That's fine.
Speaker:So what happened is I was connected with Jules
Speaker:and because I decided to give them a try. And Jules came on,
Speaker:and Jules is one of the
Speaker:thirstiest people I have ever met when it comes to knowledge.
Speaker:He wants to know everything. He wants to understand the why. He's a big picture
Speaker:thinker. And we spent he came on in May
Speaker:right after tax season wrapped up. There's always these weird odds and ends and things
Speaker:that come through. It's been amazing, because I can
Speaker:tell him, you know, a lot of times if we have too much work for
Speaker:him, like, I am actively working on emails. But if I get an email that,
Speaker:like, maybe someone has a complaint or a frustration, I have a
Speaker:tendency to avoid looking at those. And so he can look at
Speaker:it. He can help compose a response. I can approve. It can get sent
Speaker:off. It takes a lot of the executive function or the legwork out
Speaker:of that entire process and then ends up with
Speaker:us having a better client experience or a better email experience
Speaker:because I'm not doing the weird, awkward, shame, spiral avoidance
Speaker:in looking at an email. You know, there are still times where I have to
Speaker:go do something or he needs information from me, but he can
Speaker:communicate that to me. He can ask the questions. And in the meantime, he's learned
Speaker:so much. There are a lot fewer questions he has to ask. And so for
Speaker:me, something that is still uncomfortable
Speaker:has become much more manageable because I brought in help.
Speaker:And that sort of segues into my next topic here
Speaker:of feedback, soliciting,
Speaker:asking for feedback.
Speaker:This one is tough, but has
Speaker:been so fruitful. So don't get me
Speaker:wrong. I want good feedback. Right? I want you guys are awesome. We
Speaker:couldn't do this without you. This is so amazing. Like, rainbows,
Speaker:kitten, puppy, sunshine, all of that.
Speaker:That's great. But that also doesn't tell us how the experience could be better.
Speaker:And so I have come as uncomfortable
Speaker:as it is, I have come to really value constructive
Speaker:or I don't like negative feedback. We don't get
Speaker:very much negative feedback, but constructive feedback. Because we honestly
Speaker:truly want our clients to have
Speaker:a valuable, meaningful experience with us in whatever capacity
Speaker:they're working with us in. We work with a lot of different people across a
Speaker:lot of different industries that have a lot of different needs. We cannot accommodate
Speaker:everything that everyone asks for, but we're always truly
Speaker:open to feedback. And so for me, getting really comfortable
Speaker:with asking for reading, replying to feedback.
Speaker:We ask for all of our bookkeeping clients to provide feedback, or we give them
Speaker:the opportunity, I should say, to provide formal feedback once a
Speaker:quarter. And that feedback is, what are we doing well? You know, what would you
Speaker:rank us? Would you recommend us to a friend? What would you like to see
Speaker:more of offered? What can we improve upon? You know, like, are there any spots
Speaker:that have been frustrating for you this quarter? And
Speaker:a lot of times, again, we get the rainbow fluffy kitten surprise
Speaker:back, but sometimes we get feedback that, you know, hey,
Speaker:I'd really like to understand x y z when you're sending reports out,
Speaker:or I feel like I don't know what's going on with this,
Speaker:or I'd love to see you offer, more information on retirement
Speaker:or, you know, things of that nature. And it can be
Speaker:so helpful. And what's been really kind of lovely to
Speaker:see is it's uncomfortable. Right? You read this feedback. We go over it with the
Speaker:team. Like, the team has access to all of this, and
Speaker:we use it to we review it. Is this
Speaker:feedback realistic for us to implement? Is it a one off? Are they maybe on
Speaker:the wrong tier? Because sometimes we'll have a client that provides feedback, and the
Speaker:solution is, hey. Like, that's what's included in your package. And so
Speaker:it's clarifying, right, what their services are versus if you
Speaker:want next day turnaround or you want
Speaker:calls or you want these sorts of things, like, this is in this package, you're
Speaker:in this package. Do we need to look at changing offerings? And so a
Speaker:lot of times, it's clarification. A lot of times, it
Speaker:is having the conversation of, like, hey. Yeah. We can totally do that. Like, you
Speaker:know, client wants to see something emailed over, and they want
Speaker:an email instead of a video. Done. We
Speaker:can do that. And we had a client that had been really
Speaker:fantastic about giving feedback, like, constructive feedback.
Speaker:And within 6 months, her feedback
Speaker:was, I feel so heard and listened
Speaker:to because you asked for feedback, I gave
Speaker:feedback, and changes from that feedback have been implemented.
Speaker:And I see them, and it's appreciated. And so not only does it
Speaker:make our services better and more valuable, but our clients feel
Speaker:like we're not just asking for feedback for fluff. We're not just asking
Speaker:for kudos. We're not just asking for testimonials. We're not just asking to
Speaker:feel good. We genuinely care. And so despite it
Speaker:being something uncomfortable, it is something that is really
Speaker:valuable. Now, again, that doesn't
Speaker:mean it's not the customer is always right. It's not everything they
Speaker:say is gospel. It's
Speaker:what works within our business model. Where can we accommodate these things? Or
Speaker:if it's feedback we're seeing across the board, maybe we've changed something, and that thing
Speaker:that we've changed isn't working. And so I'll give you an
Speaker:example, not as soon as it's not working yet, but something that we did
Speaker:is we overhauled our tax system for this year. And
Speaker:Jill and Jules spent all of this time researching, having sales
Speaker:calls, and they found a system that they think would be far superior based on
Speaker:feedback that we had received from clients about the way that we were
Speaker:doing things. There were some frustrations with, you know, they couldn't
Speaker:see the documents once they'd uploaded them, which led to a lot of questions, which
Speaker:led to a lot of follow ups, which led to some last minute things. And
Speaker:that's not how we wanna be operating. And so we took that
Speaker:feedback, and we wanted to make something that was better both on our end on
Speaker:the admin side behind the scenes and for clients while also keeping
Speaker:security at the top of our our minds because we're working with sensitive documents.
Speaker:And so we rolled that out to clients, and there has
Speaker:been a learning curve for some of them. But the whole point is that we're
Speaker:asking for feedback during this process, and we're saying, hey. We made this
Speaker:change because this is the feedback we've received from a lot of our clients.
Speaker:This is what we've done. Please let us know what your experience
Speaker:is, what things that you could see, you know, that you liked, what things that
Speaker:you could see that need to be done differently this next year or things you'd
Speaker:like done differently for 2024. And we'll do sort of
Speaker:a a post mortem survey for all of our tax clients and
Speaker:all of our bookkeeping clients, specifically about this new system that we've rolled
Speaker:out. And that will let us decide or, you know,
Speaker:make team changes for this upcoming tax
Speaker:year to, again, always make the process more
Speaker:enjoyable or for a lot of people less painful. Taxes are painful.
Speaker:Right? So where can we make it less painful? Where can we make it easier,
Speaker:again, both for us and for our clients? And so that to me is one
Speaker:of the reasons why leaning into
Speaker:discomfort can be so incredibly
Speaker:important and valuable. And, like, I covered, you
Speaker:know, there are multiple different ways of leaning into that discomfort and
Speaker:it may be hiring someone. It may be it may honestly
Speaker:even be saying, like, I need help. I'll give you a great
Speaker:example. This podcast has been ready, not this
Speaker:particular episode, but the revamp, the
Speaker:new cover, the branding, a bunch of the guest
Speaker:episodes. We got recorded in Q3 late Q3 and early Q4 of
Speaker:2023. And then I hit a pausing
Speaker:point because we changed podcast editors. We had an agency
Speaker:that did it in 2022, which is the last time I think we'd recorded or
Speaker:edited an episode. And what happened with that is they made
Speaker:it really easy to I just dropped the recording in.
Speaker:The way that this editor does things, there's a little bit of a learning curve.
Speaker:We don't have a system set up. And so I finally reached out to the
Speaker:team member that could help with that to help project manage. And I just
Speaker:said, hey. This is what I have. This is where I'm getting stuck.
Speaker:This feels really silly. I need help.
Speaker:And from the time that this is recorded and the time that I asked for
Speaker:help, it will have been less than a month to the time that this podcast
Speaker:goes live. So
Speaker:and by this podcast, I mean, the revamp podcast, not necessarily this episode specifically.
Speaker:So understanding, like, when you need to do something that's uncomfortable,
Speaker:when you're not getting something done that's uncomfortable or confusing or that you
Speaker:just keep hitting this wall, but it's something you want to do and asking
Speaker:for help. So there's all of these different ways. Outsourcing,
Speaker:getting help, doing the damn thing, understanding it's something you
Speaker:want to do because it's something that keeps popping back up. It's something that, you
Speaker:know, feels really important. I think all of those are
Speaker:worth paying attention to. I think
Speaker:where we can fall into some trouble is feeling that we
Speaker:should do something and doing something, leaning
Speaker:in to use the term, leaning into discomfort for something
Speaker:that we don't actually want to do that isn't actually aligned, that just feels like
Speaker:something we should be doing or something that everyone else is
Speaker:doing. That's where I think we get into trouble. That's
Speaker:where, you know, hiring someone that's not a good fit,
Speaker:not paying attention to your gut or your intuition or
Speaker:anything else that we wanna, like, pay attention to there and doing something
Speaker:simply because, well, so and so did it, and they have a multimillion
Speaker:dollar business or so and so did it, and they work 10 hours a week.
Speaker:Does it align with your values? Does it align with what you wanna be doing,
Speaker:how you wanna be doing business, or operating? Right? This doesn't have to be
Speaker:just business. Like, maybe your neighbor or your best friend
Speaker:does Pilates, and that is their, like, go to thing, and they're
Speaker:happy and healthy. Maybe Pilates makes you just want to, like, fall
Speaker:over and curl up in a ball. Maybe it's not your jam. Maybe it's boring,
Speaker:but maybe you love lifting weights. That doesn't mean you need to go do a
Speaker:Pilates class because that's the right way to work out or that's the right way
Speaker:to move your body. The right way is whatever works
Speaker:for you and your goals and who you are as a human being. So
Speaker:making sure that you're getting quiet, you're paying
Speaker:attention to yourself, and you're acknowledging what
Speaker:you actually want and sort of divesting that
Speaker:or separating that from what you feel like
Speaker:you're being bombarded with or being told that you need to do, you have to
Speaker:do, you must do this. This is the only way because that is
Speaker:one of the most bullshit things that I think we are bombarded with both
Speaker:as business owners and as human beings. There's no one size
Speaker:fits all. There's no like, your goals aren't the same as
Speaker:the next person that I talk to. And that means that, like, the journey, the
Speaker:circumstances, like, all of that can look different. And your values may
Speaker:be different. So all of that in influences the decisions that you're
Speaker:making. I just want to encourage you to
Speaker:identify the areas that you may be avoiding things
Speaker:that might be making your life more difficult and look at
Speaker:what can you do. Can you do those first thing in the days, but you're
Speaker:done with them? Like, I try to answer emails first thing in the
Speaker:day. The ones that I've been putting off are the ones from the last couple
Speaker:of days or the ones that, like, need my input on them for Jules in
Speaker:this case because then it's done. It's not looming the rest of the
Speaker:day. Because if I let it loom, there's a very good chance that
Speaker:at the end of the day, I'm gonna be too tired, too stressed out to
Speaker:whatever, and I'll look at it. Oh, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow.
Speaker:So where can you communicate? Where can you hire? Where can you
Speaker:outsource? Where can you modify how
Speaker:you operate or eliminate something? You know, maybe
Speaker:you've been providing a Facebook group that you don't want
Speaker:to be doing anymore or, you know, some some level of support,
Speaker:some level of offering, some level of service that you dreads
Speaker:you dread doing, you dread supporting. Like, you don't have to keep all of the
Speaker:same things. You don't have to be the same person that you were 3, 4,
Speaker:5 years ago or even 5 months ago. You know, make sure you're
Speaker:honoring your contracts, of course, but you can make
Speaker:changes. You can make adjustments. You can hire support. You can, you know,
Speaker:bring someone in to run that Facebook group or to help with it if you
Speaker:really wanna be, you know, continuing it. So getting really
Speaker:clear about what your values are, how your time is best
Speaker:spent, and, again, what areas you can be leaning
Speaker:into to make your
Speaker:personal life, your business life
Speaker:easier, simpler, more fruitful,
Speaker:I think is really invaluable. That's a wrap
Speaker:for this episode of the Wealth Witches podcast. I hope our magical
Speaker:money talks have left you feeling empowered and inspired.
Speaker:Remember, wealth isn't just about dollars in the bank. It's about abundance and
Speaker:financial freedom in all aspects of your life. I'm Katelyn
Speaker:Magnuson encouraging you to keep challenging the status quo and embrace your inner witch
Speaker:on this financial journey. Until next time, stay magical.
Speaker:Hey there, magical listener. Are you ready to take your financial journey to the
Speaker:next level? This is Katelyn Magnuson inviting you to join us at the wealth,
Speaker:which is monthly program where we dive even deeper into the cauldron of
Speaker:wealth From live training sessions about money, taxes, retirement, and
Speaker:business support to an inclusive community that's here to support your growth,
Speaker:we've got everything you need to embrace your inner wealth witch. Visit
Speaker:our website at wealthwitchesdot com to join us.
Speaker:Your wealthier self is waiting.
